Burdened CPS is drawing scrutiny

by Mary K. Reinhart - Aug. 30, 2011 12:00 AMThe Arizona Republic

Child advocates, care providers and case managers say the death this month of a 6-year-old boy who had been the subject of five Child Protective Services reports is shedding light on a child-welfare system in crisis.

The CPS is struggling to care for a record caseload of more than 11,000 children amid state budget cuts, growing caseloads and high staff turnover.

"Those of us who have been around for a long time knew at some point it was going to implode," said Chris Scarpati, CEO of the East Valley Child Crisis Center. "You just can't keep expecting people to do more with less and expect the system to improve."

Clarence Carter, director of the Department of Economic Security, which oversees the CPS, has hired a private consulting firm to review CPS procedures and staffing. He has a meeting scheduled today with Gov. Jan Brewer and her staff to brief them on recent developments.

And a state lawmaker says she wants Carter to produce a report addressing the agency's handling of Jacob Gibson's case and that of other children who have been injured or killed. Sen. Linda Gray, R-Phoenix, plans to hold a special legislative hearing this fall.

"We need to look into what is needed by the agency," said Gray, chairwoman of the Senate Health and Human Services Committee. "Were there warning flags where maybe CPS should've acted sooner?"

At the same time, she said state budget cuts have contributed to rising caseloads for CPS workers - budget cuts lawmakers had to make in the face of sagging revenues.

Jacob's death brought a public outcry and laid blame on the CPS, which took five abuse reports on the boy in four years.

Arizona's nearly 1,000 caseworkers have, on average, taken on several more cases a month since the recession took hold.

Caseloads

After holding steady for several years, the number of children in CPS custody began climbing in mid-2008 and reached a record 11,082 kids in June, including nearly 6,500 in Maricopa County, according to DES statistics.

Records show the number of children being placed with permanent guardians is declining and many are staying longer in foster care. That means fewer are leaving the system.

Workers are fielding hundreds more hotline calls that meet the criteria for investigation. During the last six-month reporting period, from September through March, there was a nearly 5 percent increase in investigations - to 17,378 statewide.

CPS workers are carrying average caseloads that are at least 60 percent above the state's own standards.

CPS caseworkers are divided into three broad categories. Some investigate complaints of child of abuse or neglect, some keep tabs on families that have been investigated where children remain in the home, and others monitor children removed from their homes and placed in foster or other care.

Legislation passed in 2003 required DES to develop standards, part of special-session CPS reforms that followed a rash of child injuries and deaths. After more than a year of study, the agency settled on monthly averages for each of the categories: 10 new investigative cases per worker, 19 families for caseworkers keeping track of children still living at home and 16 children per caseworker monitoring kids removed from homes.

But the CPS has never met those standards.

Hundreds of children are taken into CPS custody every month, and while the agency continues to hire new workers it has been unable to keep pace. The CPS is about 200 caseworkers short of its 1,043 allotted positions and nearly 300 short of what it would take to meet state standards.

Investigative caseworkers faced an average of 15 new cases per month as of June, 50 percent more than the standard, according to DES statistics. Caseworkers monitoring families faced an average of 31 cases, while those responsible for children in foster care were keeping track of 26 children on average.

In addition to investigating abuse and neglect allegations, CPS workers must meet regularly with children and parents, make monthly visits to children in foster homes and find mental health, substance abuse and other services for families trying to keep their children. Case managers may also have to make frequent court appearances.

State budget cuts left caseworkers with fewer services to offer families, increased their workload and froze their pay. They took on additional duties when the agency dropped several contracts for other services such as supervising parental visits.

CPS cuts

DES was a key casualty in the first round of recession-era budget reductions. Lawmakers cut more than $150 million from the agency's $796 million budget in February 2009 to help close a $1.6 billion midyear deficit. The state reduced the DES budget by another $110 million the following year.

The cuts led to layoffs of about 180 CPS workers, parent aides and other child-services staff, and eliminated most prevention and in-home services for children at risk of abuse. Most of the workers were rehired with federal stimulus and other funding, and the agency was largely shielded from subsequent budget reductions, but child advocates say the system has yet to recover.

"They're working against unbeatable odds," said Marsha Porter, who runs the 15-bed Crisis Nursery in Phoenix and spent 17 years at the CPS. "I think we're asking an overwhelmed system to be perfect."

Turnover among CPS workers is traditionally higher than most other jobs. But it's now at 25 percent, according to the agency, compared to less than 20 percent in the years leading up to the recession.

Frequent turnover is expensive and difficult for administrators, families and care providers, experts say. New case workers must quickly learn the history and intricacies of family dynamics.

Between January and May, for example, the CPS hired 82 new caseworkers, but 87 left their jobs.Porter said some CPS offices are at nearly half their staff, and children in her care have had four case managers in six months.

"The system itself is kind of crumbling," she said.

DES and CPS officials declined repeated interview requests. In a prepared statement, the department noted that caseloads are well above state standards.

Solutions

The CPS was in the process of investigating two more abuse reports on Jacob when he was hospitalized with brain swelling in early August. One received July 15 reported that the boy had black eyes and a golf-ball-size knot on his head. His parents are being held in connection with his death.

In media interviews that followed, Carter decried the agency's "bunker mentality" and vowed to weed out bad employees and reward good ones.

Dozens of frustrated caseworkers fired off an anonymous e-mail, saying Carter failed to understand the constraints under which they work.

"It's a set up for failure at this point, and the stress is unbearable," said the memo. "We care and do the best we can under grossly understaffed conditions and limited resources."

Porter, a former CPS administrator, said Carter is in a difficult spot, balancing the need to support employees with public demands for accountability and action if caseworkers have erred.

After the workers responded, Carter chastised them for sending anonymous e-mails to the media, calling the fear of reprisal "a sickness."

"Our current environment is toxic," Carter wrote in a staff memo. "Left unchecked it will continue to eat away at our core until we are incapacitated."

He said DES workers will be hearing "shortly" about interim measures designed to improve communication, and "permit us to swiftly begin to change the culture of DES to one that is more conducive to all of us doing our best work."